An increasingly diverse United States means that clinicians are encountering more languages in hospital settings. SLPs and audiologists have a legal and ethical responsibility to ensure language access—that is, to actively bridge communication challenges between clinicians and patients/families who do not speak, understand, read, or write in the same language. This session discusses language access law and solutions for situations in which a trained medical interpreter is unavailable.

This course is a recorded session from the 2021 online conference “Empowered SLPs in Health Care: Breaking Barriers and Shaping Solutions.”

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• define language access and describe how language barriers impact clinical practice
• explain legal and ethical responsibilities when using medical interpreters
• identify short-term solutions for situations when a medical interpreter is unavailable and describe how to implement a language access plan

DEI Professional Development Requirement

This course counts toward the ASHA certification maintenance professional development requirement for DEI (which encompasses cultural competency; cultural humility; culturally responsive practice; and diversity, equity, and inclusion). See more courses that count toward this requirement or read more about professional development requirements for certification maintenance.

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.